From June 21st to 26th, Professor Jonathan Knight, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath, the fellow of Royal Society in UK, visited SIOM as the CAS Distinguished Scientist under CAS President International Fellowship Initiative.

In the invited speech of “The power of Light: Photonics as a force for good” at Qinghe Seminar, Professor Jonathan Knight summarized the development of photonic-crystal fiber in a historic view and introduced the next generation of photonic technology based on novel micro-structured optical fiber and devices, especially in the application of industry, defense and health-care. The seminar attracted a wide audience of staff and students in and outside SIOM. Dr. CHEN Weibiao, the deputy director of SIOM, Dr. LIAO Meisong, the director of R&D Center of High Power Laser Components and et.al. joined the seminar.

Before the seminar, Dr. CHEN Weibiao awarded Professor Jonathan Knight the titles of CAS Distinguished Scientist and Honorary Professor of Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics. The appointment certificate was also signed.

During the visit, Professor Jonathan Knight visited the laborataries including State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Joint Laboratory on High Power Laser and Physics, the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF) and R&D Center of High Power Laser Components. An intiative agreement on academic collaboration was reached.

Professor Jonathan Knight also payed a brieft visit to ShanghaiTech University and Shanghai University on 24th and 25th.

Professor Knight is a world-renowned pioneer in photonics and optics and well acknowledged as the co-inventor of the world's first photonic-crystal optical fiber with Tim Birks and Phillip St. Russell in 1990s, which had been demonstrated in broad and diverse applications from fundamental sciences to medical use. He was instrumental in establishing the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials at the University of Bath as its founding director, and its spin-out company ‘BlazePhtonics’. He was the winner of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2009), the Institute of Physics Optics and Photonics Division Prize (2012), the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics (2018), and elected as the fellow of Royal Society in 2019.